His Strategy

This week I want to share with you some startling information about the church and its unprecedented growth in two polar opposite eras. With the help of Scot McKnight and his Jesus Creed blog, Scot throws out a quote and stats from Alan Hirsch's book The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Baker: Brazos, 2006). Look at this…
"Relying upon Rodney Stark, a church historian, Hirsch calculates reasonably that the Church grew from 25 thousand in AD 100 to about 20,000,000 in AD 310. How did the early Christians do it? How did they grow at such an alarming rate?
When Mao Tse-tung seized control of China, there were about 2 million Christians; he killed most of the leaders of the church there. When the so-called Bamboo Curtain was lifted, estimates were that there were 60 million Christians; there are about 80 million today. How did that happen?
Notice Hirsch's contention about the early Christians, most of which apply to the Chinese followers of Jesus:
1. They were an illegal religion.
2. They didn't have church buildings.
3. They didn't have scriptures (the Chinese had underground, partial copies).
4. They didn't have any central institutions or professional forms of leadership.
5. They didn't have seeker-sensitive services, youth groups, worship bands, seminaries, or commentaries.
6. They made it hard to "join" the church.

My point in sharing this information is that many times the western institutional church relies upon large amounts of money and other resources to "grow" the church. Interestingly, money has never been a requirement. Personal, one to one contact, living in community-sharing Christ's love has always been the catalyst of exponential church growth.
When we see the phenomenal numbers mentioned in the scripture concerning the spread and growth of the church, we tend to look at what caused the church to grow so fast. In actuality, the numbers are there as an indicator of God's sovereign work among His people as they themselves became "little christs" in the community.
A recent study done by a church consulting ministry located of all places in the heart of America-Goessel, Kansas, concluded that when a church's money is funneled into equipping people, i.e. discipleship, those churches experience double digit annual growth. By discipleship I am not talking about a series of classes, but of hands on "apprenticing" other believers to reach out to and serve and love their community in the name of Jesus Christ.
We have much to unlearn in the west concerning the church. We would be well-served to learn from our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world! We have been sold a bill of goods that we can "promote" our church and market its programs to a consumer-driven society and expect the same results a slick advertising campaign can produce for a beer company. This simply is not the case! Jesus has a plan for the church. His plan involves loving people into the Kingdom (Acts 2), teaching them (Matthew 28:18-20) and sending them(Matthew 9-10) into their communities. This is why we exist, and why we remain here on this earth!
CONNECT with people, REFRESH the hurting and downtrodden, TRAIN "little christs", and SEND people back into their world! It is a simple plan, for the awesome opportunity to join God in His work to reconnect people to Himself. We have the written scriptures (early Christians did have the scriptures, albeit they were passed on verbally and witnessed in everyday life) and we have places to gather without fear of death. So what is our excuse? The church has everything needed to see a world literally transformed into a community of Christ Followers. I'm energized every time I think of the honor of serving our Lord Jesus Christ!